Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Learning at the Right Level

Of course, your answer is probably no. No matter what we do, none of us are experts at every single thing that we're responsible for: some tasks need only a minimal amount of knowledge, while others require us to know the subject in detail.

Our level of expertise largely depends on our role. or instance, an administrative assistant may know nothing about SWOT Analysis, but his boss has asked him to learn about the topic before the next department meeting, so that he can take good notes. For this role, the assistant needs only a limited amount of understanding.

The boss, however, is planning to use SWOT during the meeting to contribute to her company's business plan for the upcoming year. Her understanding of SWOT must be much greater than her assistant's.

On the other hand, a university professor needs to decide if SWOT is a significant enough tool to use in his course curriculum. His understanding of SWOT Analysis must be particularly strong if he wants to make an informed decision for his students.

In these examples, the level of understanding that each of these people needs depends on their use of the information. To use your learning time more effectively, you must define the level of understanding you need before you start learning.

So, how can you be clear about your starting point, so that you can ensure that you reach the necessary level – without wasting time developing your understanding beyond that level? This is when a tool like Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives can be useful.

In this article, we'll examine Bloom's Taxonomy, and we'll explore how you can use it with your team to help your people achieve their learning goals more effectively.

Understanding Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy first appeared in 1956 when Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist, presented the model in "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals (Book 1: Cognitive Domain)." Despite its age, this handbook is one of the most widely referenced books in education.

Bloom's Taxonomy, although rooted in education, is also useful in a business context, in that it helps you assess how much training and coaching people need to perform effectively in their roles.

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Whenever we learn something new, we start at the lowest level of understanding. The more we learn about the subject, the more we "move up" to the next level in skill and complexity, and the more we're able to do with this information. At the start, we simply know about a topic – but when we reach the highest levels of understanding, we're able to make educated judgments and form well-rounded arguments to support our theories.

This can be neatly summarized in a pyramid diagram as shown in figure 1 below. Here, the most basic levels of understanding are wider than the higher levels, because many more people will have basic knowledge of a subject than have higher-level knowledge.

The six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy relate to "cognitive" functions – i.e. functions associated with knowledge, comprehension and application. Let's look at each level in greater detail, starting at the lowest:

Knowledge – This is learning on its most basic level. People at this level can remember specifics such as terminology and dates, and they can remember facts and figures to answer basic questions.

Comprehension – Comprehension means that individuals can derive meaning from their knowledge by organizing, comparing, and interpreting the information.

Application – When people can apply their knowledge, they can use the information in a new or different way to solve problems.

Analysis – At this level, individuals can break the information down into parts, and then examine those parts individually. The team can see how each piece relates to the whole, understanding things like cause and effect as well as relationships.

Synthesis – Synthesis means that individuals can put together all of the elements to form a whole.

Evaluation – This last level means that people can make educated judgments about the information, and they can propose new solutions.

Note:

The pyramid representation is a later interpretation of Bloom's work, developed by Lorin Anderson, a former student of his. Anderson worked with a group of educators and psychologists to update the taxonomy. Published in 2000 as "A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing", the other big difference was that they changed the name for each level from a noun to a verb:

Bloom's Original Level

Revised Level

Knowledge

Remembering

Comprehension

Understanding

Application

Applying

Analysis

Analyzing

Synthesis

Creating

Evaluation

Evaluating

The benefit of Bloom's Taxonomy is that it helps us identify where we, and individuals within our teams, currently are on the pyramid, so we can ensure that people are learning at the right level. We can also use the pyramid to help guide our people through the levels to reach the levels of learning and understanding that they need to do their jobs effectively.

How to Use the Tool

So, how can you use Bloom's Taxonomy with your team? We'll pick up on our earlier example to help illustrate how you can apply this tool in team development.

Imagine that you're using SWOT Analysis to help shape your company's strategy for next year. You're leading a team of people who know nothing about SWOT – and until they do, you can't move forward with this work.

Level 1: Knowledge

At this level, knowledge can be repeated in the same way it was learned – writing, defining, listing, labeling, and naming.

Tip:

Key Points

Correctly identifying your team's level of knowledge can help you make sure your people are at the right level to ensure a project's success. Bloom's Taxonomy model will help you see clearly where your team is currently, so that you can determine where they need to be to achieve set goals.

Comments (5)

Chances are that some of the tasks you do only require a basic level of understanding. Other times, you'll need in-depth knowledge of something.

However, it's all too easy to waste time learning "too much."

One way to avoid this is with Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Find out how to use this tool in this week's Featured Favorite.
http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/newISS_86.php

Best wishes

Rachel

Over a month ago1incomp wrote

Hello, Everyone, this my first post. Thank you for your comments. I 'am currently employed in technical instruction assisting the head instructor, I find myself lacking in certain areas. For example moving into different levels, of understanding, as each student can be a differnt age group adolescent to mature retired executives or currently
obtaining more education or seeking a new skill. The information presented today is just
what I needed and most certainly be of benefit.

Thank, very much!

Over a month agoGoldenBoy wrote

As part of my work - instruction to immigrant youth - I use this taxonomy a lot, and in many different ways. For curriculum design, it helps me to stay on focus, designing tools that target a specific learning need and level.

I also use it as a tool for teaching; I show my students the taxonomological structure and ask them to think about where they feel they are so far in their learning of <the topic> and where they think they need to be. Many overestimate their current learning level, and so tend to bring the "I Know" fallacy into the classroom with them. This becomes a learning barrier - they construct a wall between where they are and where they should be because of false beliefs in their current knowledge level.

I use conversation, assessment tools, and critical thinking exercises to help the students self-identify their needs for the program. Very often, the students take a much more serious approach to learning than before I started using this tool.

In any learning environment, it is important to be aware of these things - not only where you should be or want to be for a given objective, but also how to get there and the things that may block you from achieving the goal.